Just a few things I'm thinking of...

This blog lists my private wonders regarding the way of life, where should I go and what am I doing. As a newcomer to blogging, I might decide to divide it into several other blogs, let's see where we get...

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Leadership (By RUDOLPH GIULIANI)

I have read this book last year and lately had a conversation about it with a friend who happened to read it too. I have found the book to be very interesting and almost didn't leave it until I read it all. There are several issues that caught me in the book:1. The high achievement standards demonstrated by RG.2. The broken windows theory.3. The self example.4. The morning meetings that helped to move things up.

Well, actually there are lot more and these are only the labels of a much wider stories, however, I would like to concentrate today on the broken windows theory, and this because I find it to be so useful to think at that way and I think everyone should be familiar with it in order to better understand how simple it might be to get to higher standards when you just follow the rules of consistency and showing an example.The "broken windows" theory says in short that in places where the windows are broken, it might be common to assume that one more broken window will not be a disaster (on the contrary). This saw might be deduced to many fields such as: [1] If you are shouting at me, it is ok to shout. [2] If a politician is a liar, his surrounding might be built of lies (and is it ok?). [3] If there is already a garbage on the floor, it is ok to drop some more garbage on that floor....So, in short, the theory says - "fix the broken windows unless you want to see all the others broken too..."

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

The MySpace Generation

An article under that name was posted two weeks ago in the businessweek magazine http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_50/b3963001.htm. Reading this article I realized that my youth days are definitely over. The youngsters today are getting used to the technological progress much better that we do (oopps, talking on myself, you can join me if you feel the same), and many of them (my 2 y/o son for example – who already know to use most of the TV remote keys) have been born into this digital world and therefore feels much more comfort with it than we do. Rapid growth of Internet communication and the potential of exponential growth of social networks are the seeds for establishing better ways for collaboration and information search in a way that will reduce operation time and time to market of whatever we the human produced dramatically.

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Global Investment Strategy - Asia

One of the recent suggestions I have received from several investors is to adopt a global investment strategy. What is it, you may ask. In short, it is a strategy that divides the investment into multiple markets, making use of globalization in order to do so in low rates, giving the investor the opportunity to reduce his risk by depending on multiple markets instead of one. In most global strategies that I have heard so far there is a clear weight to the Asian markets, namely China and Japan, but not only, the Turkish market also show good signs.The domestic consumer demands in China causes it to overtake the US roll in that section in the short coming months. As for Japan - The last year might be a turning point in Japanese economy which suffers for more than a decade now. The unemployment is at the lowest rate in the last 7 years, real-estate value starts to rise in some places, which is a rare situation in the last 10 year, there are some economical signs that can be observed as an initial process to build an inflation - after a decade of deflation. All the above might be interpreted as a signal to put more attention on the Japanese market.How to invest in Japan? The most easy way is to use an index that follows this market. EWJ for example is a stock that represents the Japanese Index and follows about 85% of the market share of most of the public companies in this market.Other options are to trade Japanese companies that already traded in the west stock exchanges, for example Sony, Honda, Canon, Kyocera and more. However, these stocks represents each a portion of the segment that they are belongs to, and this should be taken into account.

Friday, December 16, 2005

FOREX Starter Kit Sample

In the process of finding reference manuals on investment markets I have found the following link to be useful for giving a nice overview of the FOREX market. I believe it to be a nice starter for those who are not familiar with FOREX at all.

Reminiscences of a stock operator

As part of getting back into investment, trading and technical analysis (see my new blog at http://trademachine.blogspot.com), I have read this book: Reminiscences of a stock operator by Edwin Lefevre. Although this book was initially printed in 1923, it is interesting to see that the psychology of stock traders have not changed much. Nice book with an interesting story. It tells the actual story of the writer which happened to be one of the geratest stock speculators who become a legend throughout his living and also known through the following nicknames: "Daring Kid", "Cotton King" and "The Big Bear". The basic principle of stock trading remains the same, along with the excitement that came with it.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Globalization: Western Culture, Democracy and Interests Paradox

Source: Technomarket.We might think that globalization and trade activities between countries are a key factor for making a meaningful progress in the overall health and wealth. Is it right? Rest assure that this debate can not be covered in this short column, there are too many complex factors involved, among them traditions, cultures, religions, economies, geographical structure, politics, ego, interests and much more. However, I wanted to point out one factor that build up a paradox that the whole world will have to deal with, and from my point of view, it better be soon.Don't Be Naive !!! The western culture, although being built of democracy, is also built of rules. Our education is based on the common understanding that says that people should act based on a global and mutual social interests, and by applying to the rules we will live peaceful and can expect for having the tools and capabilities to gain more progress in our life, either it is financial, spiritual, educational, or other. It is also common to think that this is the right way to live in order to increase the overall satisfaction and efficiency, just by being collaborative and conforms to the common rules. The democracy gives us the right to choose between alternatives and the ability to show our individualism, as long it is being based on the common rules. This is nice, as long as we are all sharing the same faith, common understanding, and similar education. What happens when we don't? Well, I want to tell you that in the global world this just don't work and that we are all naive (yes, me too. Well - not any more). The western countries are currently facing a critical challenge, their own rules putting them in dangerous and it is time to understand that yesterday's rules does not apply to the future, and domestic rules are different than exterior ones. Also, there must be alternative rules, or better say alternative ways for dealing with situations that your rules does not thought about.You might ask yourself what am I talking about. I'm talking about terror, terrorism, terrorists and the way the world is dealing with them. I'm talking about the long processes that we have to comply with when we are dealing with evil enemies, those that are not sharing the common understanding with us and are using our own rules cynically to work for them. We give them the tools to publicly judge us under soft eyes of bleeding hearted public, whilst our enemies are not judged at all. Our democracy enforce us to allow open communication even in critical situations. The reporters that can not enter into the other lines and show their actual evil, are busying in showing our own acts with much more criticism that we deserve, leaving no place for doing the "right thing" since everything is under everybody's eyes. - This is naive I must tell you. Some saw says, "When you are at Rome, act as a Roman" - are we?

The "flattening of the world" makes us more vulnerable for being the victims of evil forces since there are much more alternatives for small groups to organize plan and move from one place to another, using basic low-cost tools. Decisions can be made in a distance, and it is relatively more difficult to track such organizations today due to the mass means of message deliveries that exist - this is one of the major cynical ways of using our own tools to attack us, the Internet which was built in the USA is now used against it, and against the modern world.

The United Nations organization supposed to be the competent authority for solving problems such that. So does (maybe) the international justice court in Hague. The problem from my point of view is that both organizations are either using double standards, or not familiar with the situation they are facing with. When each of these organization condemns Israel for its some kind of reaction, and cannot do the same for a suicide bomber, I see it as a brute double standard (without getting into the question whether Israel is right or wrong). If this is the case, how can we expect the suicide bombers to stop doing so? Isn't it supposed to be a trivial act to condemn such kind of "solution"? - When the evil is condemned, it is basically done through a long process. Take the Iraqi crisis for example. Is the long "play" of Saddam Hussein with the UN observers sound reasonable? It took them years to understand that collaboration will not be made. Another sample, the Palestinian authority. Israel through Osslo's agreement started to "pay" by providing its share of the agreement. The Palestinians from the other hand are keeping to educate their children for war, and building a new generation of fighters and suicide bombers, instead of sticking to their side of the agreement - which will bring them new opportunities, prosperity and much more joy and potential.

Call for action: My call for action is to form a new agenda in the political life. A one that is much more responsible and less hesitant. One that will put the interests of well being at the top, and will not use double standards. One that can be controlled and criticized, but not by the overall public in a way that gives ways to the civil enemies to use it cynically. A special body should be built in order to perform such control, but also to enforce proper education that will maintain the overall integrity. Our rules should be apply to anyone that participate in our culture and act under the same rules. All the others, should be treated by a different set of rules, in some cases even with their own rules.

Technology Gadget: BlueTooth Jacket

Source: TechnomarketBurton Snowboards announced on a joint venture with Motorola for the development of a series of technological cloths, among them the BlueTooth Jacket that is expected to be available earlier next year (2006). The BlueTooth Jacket under the name Audex Jacket is expected to function as a media center, enabling collaboration between BlueTooth devices such as Cellular Phone, MP3 Player, PDAs and more. A control panel is stitched to the left sleeve of the Jacket along with embedded microphone and earing in the Jacket's cap.Price is expected to be around $600.Information Source

The philosophy of a Trade Machine

Source: TradeMachine.It is a long time now that I'm playing with the idea of making a Trade Machine. I'm a novice technical trader, using technical analysis tools for making on-the-spot buy/sell decisions. There are plenty of people worldwide that are doing the same, some are more experienced and professional and some even doing it for a living. I am not doing it for a living, but wish I could, and recently circumstances made me some extra time that might help me to get closer to that dream of mine.So [1] what is a trade machine, [2] why should I want to have one and [3] are there any on the market today?A1: In simple, a trade machine is an investment "guru" that is programmed to identify potential opportunities in the market and perform actual trade activities in order to take advantage of these opportunities. The trade machine performs "day trading" activities in most cases. Some types of trade machines may be less proactive and more suggestive. Instead of running as "daytraders" and performing the actual buy/sell the machine can suggest you to do it and you will take the final decision. Such machines are more suited to end-of-day analysis since they are not required for on-the-spot decision (the human factor can not be assumed to act at once).A2: Obvious. Having a trade machine that is callibrated with algorithms that works out is a money maker that no-one would like to loose. Such machine can make you financially free, leaving you the decision what to do with your time. I'm not a lazy guy, but having the option to choose is something that is rarely available ever.A3: No one would admit it since it might motivate others to try building their own money machines. Too much machines in the market will reduce the potential profit for each one of them and will not do any good. This is why when you are talking with people that have anything close to it, they does not show their cards.

Just created a new blog for Investment Tools

I have just created a new blog for investment tools and mostly for the old idea of making a money machine. Please visit http://trademachine.blogspot.com/.

I also decided that this blog will aggregate all my other blogs. Just to make sure you are in-line with the current list I amintain (only blogger accounts are listed here) here is the updated one:1. http://trademachine.blogspot.com/2. http://galgalc.blogspot.com/3. http://technomarket.blogspot.com/4. http://gal-books.blogspot.com/

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Beijing 2008 - Wakeup call for China

I have written a nice post on that subject but somehow it was deleted and I have to re-write it again.So, I wanted to talk abit about China as a waking giant that is going (already is) to shuffle all the cards of the world's economy. 5 out of 10 most air-polluting cities in the world resides in China (amongst them is Beijing). How will that affect the Olympic games in 2008? How does is affect the Chineese right now? Are the chineese people doomed for low wages, minimal health care and now also for a air-polluted environment? Signs show that not necessary, the republic already aware for the air pollution problems - will that lead to a change, only the time will tell.

China is a big mystery for me. I have been in Beijing at December 2004 and amazed from the size of the city, the progress of western companies in getting inside this culture (most of them entered in the last 5 years), and loved to talk with those that happened to know english (a few, most of them from the hi-tech companies that I met there). The city is huge in size. Old and new are meet at the edges of the large buildings and the city is growing rapidly. 10 Years ago the streets were rolled by bicycle riders. Today, modern cars jams in the heavy traffic and there are signs for big progress in building new roads, improving existing ones and some even tell stories on building a train line.The main road of Beijing is well suietd for such huge republic, you might even seen it on TV or movies, it is amazingly wide (5 lanes for each side inside a craving city) - well suited for martial marchs for example (you know, heavy tanks, big missiles, big images on giant trucks, etc.)

I'm pissed of that my original post was lost, it had much more details and thinking and just re-thinking about it causes me an headache... (to be continued)

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Changing the course in life - The theory

Some of us will end-up their professional life doing the same things and using the same general profession. This group include both those that enjoy their work and those that are not. Another group of people will change their profession during their lifetime. This group includes those that are doing it out of their will and those that are not (forced to make a change). Which side are you, and should it matter?The 'middleage crisis' is a phenomena that strikes most people around the age of 40. I believe that the crisis appears as part of an acceptance process that cause each one of us to better understand what he/she can achieve out of life and what we can. Until that point, we might have had big expectations that were not fully fulfilled. From that point and into the future, we will be more moderate with our expectations and this process causes a mental shock to most of us.Some may deal with it by changing their desires, some may become more realistic and others may become more hungry and more directed, whatever side you are, you might also choose to completely change a course in your life and start a new career.

I believe that I'm currently waiting in front of a red light, looking for the green light to come and still not sure where should I go in that junction of life. This might be only a methodological halt afterwhich I will continue strait ahead with the same course, however, I can turn left or right, and even make a U turn. One of the most bothering issue in building a career is the fact that at the end of the day you need the money to make a living. This bothering ingredient cause most of us to stay at a job that does not interest us any more, just for the sake of having the safety net ready for a bad day. This is an existing dilemma and there is no single recipe to solve it.

The Self Development Irony - Do you enjoy the ride?

The Egg-Chicken relationship co-exist with the analysis of mature successful self development. One may ask where do I'm heading to and what should I learn, and then just start the relevant studies. On the other hand, how can I manage to build a syllabus of topics that I'm not familiar with? If I have to learn what I don't know of, how can I find what to learn and how deep should I go?Fortunately, we are living in the "google era" - so finding new stuff is not the problem, However, this same fortune also lead to a major problem, refining the search results are meaningful and without them a self developer may sunk to follow endless sources of information.The inevitable conclusion is to accept the fact that learning and studying is a life-long journey. If you can not set the high watermark and mark the end of it - at least try to enjoy the ride.